


A tiny problem

by Gaia_bing



Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: As in an Inch Tall Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Canon Divergence - Captain America: The First Avenger, Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, Misunderstandings, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Pym Particles, Romance, Shrinking, Strangers to Lovers, Tiny Steve Rogers, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-03-26 17:00:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13862028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gaia_bing/pseuds/Gaia_bing
Summary: An healthy body and super-human strength to protect his country, that what was in the cards for Steve Rogers.However, now being the size of somebody's thumb wasn't.As being 70 years into the future wasn't.And certainly meeting someone that was just like him, only normal-size this time  around, also wasn't.And on top of it all, falling in love with said person, knowing they could never be together, also wasn't.So then, what was in the cards for Steve Rogers?The beginning of an unbelievable life and an unbelievable love.





	1. How he got there

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there! So, this is another piece written by yours truly! Hope guys enjoy it. :)

_**New York City, 2016...** _

Every time he went to sleep, just like he was doing right now, Steve could still remember this moment as if it happened only minutes and not decades earlier:

  
Peggy and Colonel Phillips, both sitting in the audience.

  
Howard and Doctor Erskine standing there, dead center inside the huge laboratory.

  
And himself, young and often sickly Steven Grant Rogers, strapped onto a metal table like the experimental rat he'd agreed to become, to gain the strength and length he'd always lack, to join a war that he'd die for and most of all...

To become the better version of himself that he always knew he could be.

"Today we take not another step towards annihilation, but a first step towards the path to peace." the doctor called out over his microphone to his captive spectators.

  
_"Yeah, right after I punch Hitler in the fucking face."_ Steve thought to himself as the last of the preparations were made around him.

  
Vials of fluids were put in their rightful places,

  
Penicillin was inserted inside his veins,

  
Levers were pushed,

  
Buttons were clicked,

  
And then...

  
Something streaming inside his blood,

  
His muscles getting extended from their formerly weakened state,

  
Being risen upright,

  
Doors closing around his form,

  
A bright, so, _so_ bright light,

  
And then...

  
**Pain.**

  
So much **_pain_**.

  
His muscles, his bones, his... _god **everything**_ inside him contracting...

  
He screamed and screamed until his vocal chords became scratchy inside his throat.

  
And then...

  
_Then..._

  
Darkness.

  
Complete and utter darkness.

  
He stayed there, completely and utterly still.

  
Until...

  
_"Steven! Steven? How are you feeling?"_ asked someone in a gentle voice laced with a German accent that the blond recognized as the man's who lead the entire operation and still with his eyes closed, he tiredly whispered:

  
"Taller."

  
But Peggy's suddenly booming voice (since when did she begin to talk so damn loudly?) came with a worried tone as she said:  
"Uhm, Steve, not to alarm you or anything, but I think you should open your eyes before you make that kind of statement."

And so he did as he was told and Steve Rogers' tired but happy expression turned to one of pure horror when he found himself face-to-face with...

  
That was always the moment he woke up in a jolt, panting and sweating, his heart racing a thousand miles a minute.

  
He racked a hand through his hair and pushed a deep, deep sigh as he took a look at himself...

  
Yeah, the machine had done what it had been made to do: he was now a super-soldier with a strenght bigger than most normal humans possessed and a healing factor higher than anyone thought possible. Beefier body included.

  
His sigh turned a bit sorrowful as his eyes turned towards his surroundings.

  
If only...

  
_If only..._

  
If only that stupid machine hadn't made him shrink down to the size of _goddamn_ blade of grass in exchange...


	2. A day in the life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, what's it like being only an inch tall super-soldier? Well...

**7AM: Natasha Romanoff**

  
_"Good morning in there!"_ came a voice so damn chirpy at so damn early in the morning that it made Steve turn around in his bed, which was basically a piece of wadding he'd found laying at the bottom of a shoe-box, which had quickly become his home, with the help of some helpful scissors and a very craftful Natasha, that he'd always be grateful to for that particular fact.

  
But right now, just as the sun was beginning to rise, Steve Rogers was anything *but* grateful to the red-head, as she leaned over and annoyingly blew a small puff of air at his back, knowing that to Steve, it was like a hurricane was coming down on him.

  
And unfortunately for him, it did the trick, as he was now rubbing his hurt bottom and looked at the grinning woman he had the misfortune to call his friend and teammate. He let out a deep sigh as he said: "Nat, it's 7 in the morning. Do you know how many people are up at this hour? None! And especially on a Saturday!"

  
But the giant woman standing in front of him simply crossed her arms as she explained: "Hey, you're the one that asked me last night to wake you up this early in the morning, remember?"

  
Everything came back to Steve like a flood:

  
The laboratory,

  
The test,

  
_"Maybe this time..."_

  
Steve was up his now off his unhurt bottom in a second and inside Natasha's awaiting hand the next.

  
"What the hell are you waiting for? Hop to it!" he exclaimed, clicking his thighs together around who he now thought he had the _great_ fortune to call his friend and teammate's index finger, like he was riding a horse or something.

  
This made the red-head giggle, but beginning to walk in the desired direction anyway. "Hey, don't forget we've got to look at that supposed Hydra cell down by the bay later this afternoon, so don't take too long up there, alright?" she reminded her small comrade.

  
"Yeah, yeah. Less reminding, more speed walking!" Steve retorted, giving Natasha's palm a hard slap, still acting like he was riding an animal, that the woman in question felt this time around and made her double up in rapidity, what with the the blond man having great strength despite his very small structure.

  
************  
**9AM: Bruce Banner**

  
***Boing* *Boing***

  
"Stop that."

  
***Boing Boing***

  
"Steve, please you know I can't concentrate when there's noises around me."

  
Up from his make-shift trampoline, which really was just an rubber band pulled to its extreme between two metal poles that Steve had no idea what their uses were, the blond man sighed and stopped the only activity he'd found fun to do while he was awaiting the results of his bi-monthly blood analysis.

  
Sitting on the still slightly wavering band, Steve crossed his legs and waited for a couple of minutes...and was about to restart his jumping around any seconds now he was so bored, if Bruce hadn't put his glasses off his nose and announced: "Welp, there it is."

  
Hope blossomed in the pit of Steve's stomach despite himself, just like every time he knew his results were coming in. "So?" he asked with a slight trepidation in his voice.

  
And, just like every time he met up with Bruce and did the same song and dance with him, Steve just knew he shouldn't have expected anything other than:

  
"I'm sorry Steve, it didn't work, **again**. Both kinds of blood cells just ignored each other, like a couple of snobbish neighbors. Nothing happened."

  
And, just like every time the negative news came to his ears, Steve's face fell in defeat, knowing that yet another test to get him to his original size had failed.

  
They had tried everything, ever since he'd been found four years earlier, frozen solid and sleeping soundly inside the ventilation system of the Valkyrie, more than seventy years after making it crash into the Arctic Ocean from its wirey inside.  
Frying it didn't work, freezing it didn't work either. Neither didn't Wanda nor Thor's magic.

  
Those damn Pym Particles were always there, hanging on to the super-soldier's DNA like a virus that refused to go away, no matter how much blood Steve ended up donating and no matter what kind of test Bruce ended up trying.

  
"Damn," he heard Bruce murmur to himself. "And here I thought mixing the blood of someone that received the same kind of serum as him would do the trick..."

  
Steve blinked.

  
_"Excuse me?"_

************  
**12PM: Tony Stark**

  
"His name's James Buchanan Barnes. He was born I'll say, two or tree years before you. Went into war, fell off some train during an operation, got caught, brainwashed and grafted on a brand new arm that he lost during his fall by the bastards we're flying to check out right this moment, killed a bunch of people while being under their influence, including my parents. Yada-yada-yada, got de-brainwashed by the people of Wakanda after spending two years in jail and now here we are, with a brand new member in the team when tomorrow comes." Tony explained to his flight buddy, who was standing inside his metal suit or more precisely, his metal helmet.

  
The man in question, in his Captain America getup for the mission ahead, crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes as he asked: "And I, as the leader of this whole shebang, wasn't informed about any of this before today, because?"

Tony sighed: "Oh come on now, we all know how testy you can be when it comes to greeting new people into the team."

  
"Hey! I'll have you know I'm not testy! I'm not! At all!" Steve proclaimed, totally offended.

  
That made Tony snort in response. "Oh please, you're the most difficult person I've ever met and that includes whenever I look inside a mirror."

  
He was about to turn his head straight and concentrate towards the road ahead, when...

  
_"Hey...!"_

  
_"Rogers...!"_

_"Would you just...!"_

  
But the man in question didn't let up. "You want difficult? I'll show you goddamn difficult!" Steve screamed as he flailed his arms right in front of Tony's field of vision.

  
And since Iron Man was several hundred of feet into the air at the moment and couldn't see anything besides the annoying fly that Steve Rogers was being at the moment...

  
What was meant to happen did in fact happen and...

  
**************  
**2PM: Sam Wilson**

  
Falcon was standing there, hands on his hips as he welcomed the now wobbly-walking Tony and tightly-gripping Steve.

  
"Don't ask." they both said in unison and a tired voice, as they passed the eyebrow-raised man and joined the rest of the Avengers for what they were about to do.

  
**************  
**3:30PM: Hawkeye**

  
"Clint! What do you see?" Steve said as he ran as fast as his one-inch frame could.

  
_"I got two on my right and three on my left. I'll be able to get four on the first try, but the last one far ahead..."_ the archer said over his com.

  
The blond man didn't need to be told twice. "I'm on it." he called over to his side. Sure, this usually was Scott Lang's job, but since he was needed at his daughter's school today...

  
Steve rapidly jumped from the fire escaped he's just climbed upon up towards the rooftop Clint was stationed at, then hopped onto the top of the steel-tipped arrow the other blond man had just fired and with all of the strength the super-serum running inside his body could muster, he directed the feathered object to land straight inside the last Hydra runaway's leg, making the bad guy fall down and the other members of the team cheer in joy.

  
Captain America rubbed the sweat off his forehead and his hands together in triumph.

  
Another day, another well-accomplished mission.

  
Steve should have felt proud: he was doing what he was born and had accepted being experimented on for.

  
Steve should have felt content: he had friends that cared for him and accepted him and that he in return would do anything for.

  
Steve should have felt happy: he had a home that he created for himself despite the strange times that he'd woken in only four years earlier.

  
But then, if all of those things were true, why when looking at everything around him...

  
Was Steve feeling as lonely as he'd ever been?

  
*************  
**8PM: Scott Lang**

  
_"Oh, that's one easy. That's because you don't relate to anybody. Pass three cards."_ the man usually known as Ant-Man said as he put into the so-called card trash-pile what he was rejecting and received what he needed in this hotly-contested game of poker.

  
"I'm going to raise you twenty. Yeah, but what the hell am I supposed to do, begin to get social with insects? I mean I already filled your role as the weapon-rider this afternoon, pal, but I'm not 100% sure your six-legged buddies would appreciate me take taking the rest of what you bring to the team." Steve responded as he carefully studied his hand.

  
"And I am going to call. Well, these days I'm more in my giant form than in my mini one, so if you want, the coast is clear." Scott said, wiggling his eyebrows and making Steve stifle a laugh.

  
With the ability of getting small, thanks to a suit built by the man that had discovered what had made the blond man the size that he was today, (that Bruce had also tested by reducing it to a microscopic size and that had, along with Steve's cells that was inhabiting it, exploded right in front of both men's frightened eyes) Steve couldn't have helped but be a bit reluctant at first when it came to integrating Scott inside his close circle of friends, a bit worried that the other man would steal his spot as the mini-person inside the team.

  
But, then again, as they said, two small persons were better than one and with the other man using his suit to get one the bigger-scale than on the tiny-one nowadays...

  
Steve sighed to himself as he laid down his cards on the make-shift table in front of him. Maybe Tony was right, about being difficult and maybe Scott was right, about being unable to relate to anybody.

  
Maybe this Buchanan guy that he was supposed to meet early the next morning (this one was totally Natasha's fault, by the way) wouldn't be so bad to have around after all, with being from the same time period and having the same kind of experience with a serum as himself.

Maybe having a friend that had gone through the same kind of things would help him get over his loneliness.

And hey, maybe if the other man was the same size as he himself was right now, they would have all kind of different adventures all around the Tower and the World.

  
_Maybe..._

  
***Beep* *Beep* *Beep***

  
A ringing alarm made Steve get out of his thoughts and Scott look at his watch.

  
"Oops, sorry Cap, looks like small-time is up, again. If I don't want my system all messed-up like yours is..." he started.

  
"Yeah, yeah, go ahead." Steve finished, understanding what his friend was trying to say.

  
And, as he watched the other man grow back to his original size thanks to the push of a button, Steve called out as he realized and pointed towards his Straight Hand:

"Hey! You didn't even show me what you had!"

  
And Scott, grinning after he took off his helmet, bent over Steve's shoe-box as he wolfishly whispered before departing:

  
_"Royal Flush, baby!"_

  
And leaving Steve to call out after him:

  
"Ah, you son of a bitch!"

  
***********

  
**7AM the next morning: James Buchanan Barnes**

  
This...this wouldn't do at all.

  
This guy...this hunk of a guy...

  
This grey-eyed, long-haired dream-boat of a guy...

  
This gold-and-metal armed, curiously-looking-at-him hotness of a guy...

  
Was... _god_ was...

  
He didn't know what he was, but this guy clearly, understandably, 100% _was_.

  
And as the two of them stared straight inside the other's eyes,

  
One the size of a thumb and the other one the size of anybody else,

  
Steve knew that this Buchanan guy,

  
Could _never_ , _**ever**_ simply be his friend.

  
Because...

  
Because...

  
Because...

  
This Bucky-as-he-liked-to-be-called guy...

  
Had somehow already made his way inside Steve's heart,

  
At the first tilt of the head and kind smile.


	3. The new guy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve and Bucky finally meet.

Now James Buchanan Barnes...had seen a lot of things in his life.

  
From the gorgeous fruitful jungles of Zimbabwe, to the beautiful crystal-clear grottoes of the Antartic, he'd always thought he'd seen in all over the past seventy years and the memories of all of these amazing sceneries, which he was only beginning to uncover, were ones that he knew he'd truly cherish until his dying days.

  
But nothing could prepare him to the gorgeousness and the beautifulness that was standing there, only one-inch tall, right there on the coffee table, arms crossed, defiant look upon his face.

  
And James Buchanan Barnes...had also done a lot of things in his life.

  
Things he was absolutely proud of, like getting into the army to defend his country with everything he had and accepting his fate without resistance when FBI agents knocked at his Romanian home.

  
And unfortunately for him, things he wasn't so proud of, like breaking a little bit more hearts than he could count back in his glory days as a bachelor and...well...

  
The reason he'd been baptized the Winter Soldier wasn't really something to shout out on the rooftops either. Every drop of blood he'd spilled and help spill along the years, he remembered them all and he knew that whatever redemption came to him or he went through, the ghosts of all of his victims would forevermore haunt his head and his heart.

  
But he hadn't been ready for the way his heart had done a complete 360 on itself when his sight had set on the small frame standing there on the wooden surface, looking at him with as curious eyes as his own had been. Those beautiful blue eyes that he knew would haunt his heart and his head until his last breath.

  
Had...had all of this just been fate, however cruel it had been sometimes? After spending two years inside that UN prison, where he learned more about himself than anywhere else? Where he'd occupied his jailed time by...by...

  
Bucky blinked incredulously. Had all of this been a ploy be some deity living upstairs to bring him here, in this time and this place, to get him face to face with the one man he thought he'd never get to meet but had always felt something towards, for his bravery and resolve despite his limitations and history?

A thought went over to Rebecca, his younger sister, wherever she was. If only she knew he was now standing face to face with the main subject of the different posters that had adorned his Brooklyn bedroom walls back in the day, she'd never believe him even if she found herself right in front of the man, like he was right now...

  
Well, more like right in the back now, as the small man had turned away from him, closing his eyes and huffing a indignant breath as he did so.

  
Bucky's kind smile turned into a slight frown as he moved his eyes towards Tony (one of the people he would forever be thankful for giving him a chance in spite of what had happened in the past) "Did...did I do something wrong?" he asked in a quiet voice, not understanding why this little man seemed to be mad at him, despite meeting only about two of three minutes earlier.

  
Tony opened his mouth and was about to say something, when Steve finally raised his hand and turned around.

  
"You didn't..." he cleared his throat and closed his eyes one more time, as if he had been about to go one way with his words, but had decided to go another at the last second. "It's not you that did anything wrong...it's just...how come?" he indicated his length and then Bucky's by a wave of the arm.

  
Bucky shook his head. If _only_ Steve **knew**...

  
But, as it had only been four minutes since they'd met, for now he wouldn't.

  
"They made some modifications to the serum when they saw what had happened to you. I got captured back in the day by some guy named Azzano and he injected me with the stuff and well, whatever took you over didn't do the same to me. So, here I am, here you are..." he started.

  
"And here we _all_ are. Now, I know it's gotta be _really_ hard for you to do this Rogers, but for once in your life, could you get over your damn ego and accept something or someone without hissing like a goddamn cat? If I can get over something that happened to this guy, you certainly can, so we can all get along like the happy little Avengers family that we're all supposed to be. So, what's it's going to be?" Tony finished for him.

  
Steve looked at the billionaire with a suspicious glare. "And what if I don't?" he asked.

  
Now it was Tony's turn to cross his arms and give the one-inch man a defiant glare as he answered: "Well, you can say goodbye to your DUM-E, DUM-U and all of the other Avengers transporting privileges and I for one do _not_ wanna know how long it's going to take you to get from that damn shoe-box that you call your living quarters to the bathroom all by yourself...without no one or nothing to help you around when you're in dire need of relea-"

  
"Alright, alright! I'll...I'll give him a chance." Steve interrupted, looking at them both while heaving a sigh and making Bucky smile.

  
Dropping his hands to his side, Steve stared at the long-haired man for a couple seconds more before finally announcing:

  
"Well Bucky Barnes, I guess there's nothing else to say but... _Welcome to the Avengers_!"


	4. The list

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or six reason why Steve and Bucky could never be together in a romantic way.

**Two months later...**

  
Steve walked to the left, stopped, turned his head, sighed and turned around.

  
Steve walked to the right, stopped, turned his head, sighed and turned around.

  
Next to him, on top of the communal kitchen counter where he'd been busy pacing back and forth for a little while now, were laying two items. One was a stack of post-it notes, accompanied with a small EDC pen, a welcome gift from Tony after the team had been put together.

  
On the small yellow piece of paper that rested at the top of the pile was what making Steve sigh and go around and around in his steps:

  
His anti-Bucky Barnes list.

  
Rethinking about it, maybe Tony had been right after all. He really was a difficult person when it came to letting people in, for different reasons and every time, somewhere and somehow, everyone that had been added to the team had eventually warmed him over and he'd finally accepted them after some time.

  
But when it came to James Buchanan Barnes, there was no way he would be swayed so easily, so _sirree_!

  
**Because**!

  
**_Because_** ,

  
**_ Because... _ **

  
Steve sighed once again as he looked at the entire title of what he'd written eight weeks earlier...

  
**"My anti-dating Bucky Barnes list."**

  
_This_ was the reason that he'd acted so aloof towards the long-haired man during their first meeting. Not because the other man had left a negative impact on him, quite the contrary...

  
His first impression of Bucky had been favorable. So favorable in fact that Steve had found himself thinking what color both of their future wedding tuxes could be. Shaking his head and turning around in a huff so that he wouldn't find himself looking at the newest member of the team (and hiding the shame that had suddenly risen inside his underpants), Bucky's natural charm and Tony's natural annoyance had finally convinced him to give the older super-soldier a chance.

  
And, with the list he'd found himself writing the moment he'd been left alone after all of this had happened, he'd prove to himself that he and Bucky Barnes could never, _ever_ happen. No way, no how!

  
But that had been two months earlier and back then he'd thought his anti-dating reasons were entirely bullet-proof, but looking at it now...

 **1) He could be really bad on the battlefield aka. we can't be partners in real-life if we can't be partners at saving the world**.

  
Yeah, this one had been brought down the earliest of the bunch, only two days after their first meeting.

  
Some giant lizards-thingies, coming from some unknown point in the universe thanks to some magical portal, measuring about ten feet tall each, were terrorizing New York City.

  
And they weren't made of tissues like any living thing on Earth, not at all. They had to be made of some sort of impenetrable metal or something, with the way Tony's pulsars and Natasha's bullets didn't seem to do a single millimeters of damage no matter how much both of them were trying. No matter how much _all_ of them were trying.

  
And Steve was quite busy at freaking the fuck out, standing on the ledge of a rooftop once again.

  
What they hell were they going to do? Why wasn't any of the Avengers' weapons working? How the hell were they going to being these monsters down if nothing was fazing them? Was this really how this going to end for New York City, for everybody, for the...

  
***Bang!***

  
A resounding sound made the masked Captain America snap out of the circle his tormented thoughts had formed and looking to where he'd heard what he thought for sure had been a gun shot...

  
He saw James Buchanan Barnes, laying on the cemented roof right like he was taking a back sun-tan or something of the sort, long gun in his arms, looking like he was aiming at something...

  
***Bang!***

  
In shock, he watched as one of the monstrous lizards fell down like a broken tree, no sign of life in his eyes or in its limbs.

 

And looking over, Steve noticed that another one was laying in the same position, completely dead to the world.

  
"H...how did...?" Steve stammered and Bucky had just shrugged and replied:

  
"That's what you get for being a sniper for pretty much all your life, you notice the enemy's weak point pretty much a first glance..."

  
His sentence was cut short when one of the two fallen lizard's mates, seeing what the former Winter Soldier had done, quickly spit out one of Natasha's bullet that it caught between his metallic teeth at the long-haired man...

  
Only for Bucky to quickly catch it between one of the _many_ plates that consisted his left arm and shoot it back at the monster, with as much velocity as it'd been thrown at him.

  
Steve's eyes bulged as the third lizard quickly fell down.

  
"... _How?!_ " he once again asked.

  
And, patting his metal arm with his fleshy hand, Bucky proudly smiled and answered:

  
"Vibranium, the Universe's strongest metal. Maybe you should get something of that material for yourself."

  
And with that, the long-haired man had jumped down to take care of the rest of the alien menace, leaving Steve to shout after him:

  
_"What? Like a shield or something?!"_

  
So Bucky Barnes was good at fighting, so what? Everyone else on the team was good at fighting and that hadn't meant that Steve had been interested in them in  _that_ way. That had been a superficial and unthought reason and Steve knew it. This was why no.1 on the list had been crossed without any hesitation.

  
But, looking over at the next reason, this one well thought-out, he'd thought: " _Yeah, this one should do the trick..."_

  
**2) They could have absolutely nothing in common.**

  
Only for it to be brought down a month after their first meeting, during a hotly contested Trivia Night.

  
"Who wrote the 1931 hit song _"At your Command"_? was the question Wanda asked to the group gathered on the leather couch of the communication room.

  
... _Tick-Tick_...

  
...nobody was answering and time was quickly running out...

  
Until two voices suddenly piped in simultaneously:

  
_"Bing Crosby!"_   had called out both super-soldiers, small and regular-sized edition, before turning around and staring at one another in disbelief.

"Wait, the guy that sang _"White Christmas"_? I thought that thing was the only stuff that he was famous for!" had asked Sam.

  
And Bucky had turned around, looking at the man people called Falcon like he'd just offended his mother. "I'll have you know, dear sir, that Bing Crosby was a _lot_ more than that stupid song." he said to his teammate, crossing his arms.

  
Steve nodded as he added: "Yeah, and I for one should know, my mom gave me her entire collection of his vinyls right before she died and I listened to them all everyday before going to war."

  
That had made Bucky turned around once more, this time in his direction as he said: "Really? He was pretty much my comfort music when I got enrolled."

  
_"Really?"_

  
**"Really!"**

  
_"Oh my god!"_

  
**"Me too!"**

  
And the rest of the gang, all of them rolling their eyes as they stood up and went to bed, left the pair sitting on the couch, talking for hours about the merits of the crooner back in the day, what was song of his was their personal favorite, anecdotes from their time in different dance halls and their skills (or lack there of) when it came to dancing.

  
Leaving Steve the next day, with a slightly reluctant smile upon his face, crossing the second reason as to why he and Bucky could never be in a romantic relationship, because after all, even if two people have some things (or in the case of Steve and Bucky, a **lot** of things) in common, didn't mean that their relationship was meant to go beyond a pure, friendly and platonic one.

  
Thank goodness he'd brought in the next two reasons just in case...

  
**3) He could be really ugly without anything covering him**. and **4) He could not be batting for Steve's team and we're not talking about the Dodgers here.**

  
And these ones had been brought down only two weeks ago, when Steve had unfortunately (or maybe... fortunately?) caught Bucky right in his birthday suit.

  
Context for anyone that's starting to get offended:

  
It had been about midnight and Steve, the unthinking moron that he sometimes could be, hadn't really thought of the consequences when Thor had brought everyone some taken-out Mexican food and the blond man had stuffed his face with some left-over beef and beans tortillas...

  
And well, digestive systems are digestive systems and they always work in the same kind of way, no matter how much you measured and Steve really, **really** had to go and _now_.

  
The thing was, in the middle of the night, nobody was available to help him make the trek to the large communal bathroom, the one he always took since there was a toilet made especially for him (and Ant-Man whenever he was in his mini-size and had no time to get back to normal before going) and there was no bathroom available in his living quarters, since he didn't want to drown out his piece of wadding and the cardboard of his shoe-box.

  
So, this was how he found himself, running for his life, holding his gurgling stomach (among other things) with his hands, down the large hallway, trying on the fly to decide where to go to relieve himself, since he knew he wouldn't be able to make it in time to the communal bathroom only by foot. Steve might have been fast, but he wasn't _that_ fast...

  
Where to go, where to _go_?

  
An Eureka moment came to him when he noticed a closed door almost right next to the one he'd just slipped under...

 

Weren't these Bucky's living quarters?

 

...Would the long-haired man really be _that_ upset if he'd borrowed his bathroom for his own business, just this once?

 

Hopping in place and knowing (and feeling) what was about to come, Steve couldn't wait anymore...

  
He slipped under the door,

  
Ran straight for the (thank god!) right-there bathroom after almost tripping through the blackened out hallway,

  
And found himself face-to-face with a getting-out-of-the-shower-and-with-no-towel-on Bucky.

  
Both froze, both blinked for a second or two, both shrieked like twelve year-olds as they closed their eyes and ran opposite ways: Bucky right out the door and Steve straight onto his destination to do what needed to be done.

  
And it was much, much later, after much, much apologizing from both parties (especially Steve), that the latter couldn't helped but notice two things happening during what had been dubbed "The Incident":

  
A) Bucky was muscled up and fine as hell.

  
and

  
B) Bucky's...southward parts had seemed to have taken a liking to his accidental viewing of said regions, with the way it had seemingly risen like the dead during one of those zombie movies Clint and the rest of the gang liked to watch so much...

  
Steve shook his head and quickly brought his own southward regions down just at the thought of it.

  
Alright, so Bucky was gorgeous with and without clothes on and seemed to be interested in the same sex as his own, but that didn't mean anything! Just because there were two people inside a group that liked the same kind of people, it necessarily didn't mean that they _had_ to get together!

  
After all, Steve had thought to himself as he'd crossed that particular element, even if the exterior is nice and you share some common interests, it doesn't mean that the interior of the person is good. After all, the guy was a former assassin, brainwashed or not. Maybe deep, deep down, after some time...

  
**5) He could be a total jerk.**

  
That one had been struck down only earlier that day, when Bucky had come in the kitchen, a pack of bread and some meat inside his hands and had noticed Steve quietly doodling on the same pack of post-its (the one that contained his list carefully hidden away from the world, of course), looking pensive.

  
Settling his packages down on the table that was standing right next to the counter, the long-haired man couldn't help but comment: "How come you're only using a pen and doing nothing in color?"

  
And looking up, Steve was the one that had shrugged this time as he responded: "I tried once, with oil paint in fact. But...yeah..." he indicated the length of his body, just like he'd done so during their first meeting. Raising an eyebrow, he'd added: "Believe me, you don't wanna know how much time it takes to get that stuff out of pretty much every part of your body."

  
And Bucky, that damn attractive man, had flashed him a blinding smile and, seemingly having an Eureka moment of his own, had fished something out of his pocket and had deposited right next to where the one-inch man was sitting. "There's an app on this thing that lets you draw whatever you want with whatever color you want. I can lend it to you for the day, since I don't really get much phone-calls nowadays." he explained.

  
And at Steve's sputtering that he didn't have to do this and that he was fine with just the inky feeling that his small drawing instrument was providing him, Bucky had just shaken his head and raising a hand, he'd taken his meat and bread back with the other and had backed away, shouting out: _"I'll be fine without a phone for a day, don't worry!"_

  
And he'd left Steve standing there, taking out his hidden list and crossing the fifth element with a groan, but not before indulging himself into some fine colorful doodling. Hey, if you were given this kind of present, wouldn't _you_ have taken advantage of it for a little bit? Yeah, that's what Steve thought...

  
But still, after crossing off his fifth point, he'd begun pacing...and it all had lead to where he was now, looking at the rest of his list, slightly grinning in relief...

  
He still had one reason. One impenetrable, insurmountable reason why Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes could never be together romantically. One Steve knew could never be beaten, no matter how much the world, hell the whole Universe, tried.

One that Steve was happy existed...

...yeah...

  
Really _was_ happy it existed...

 

He really was happy, he _was_! 

  
That that he and Bucky could never...

  
_Ever..._

 

His grin began to fade just as...

  
***Ring!* *Ring!***

  
The loud, shrilling sound made Steve almost jump right out of his skin. He blinked as the cellphone continued ringing, wondering if he should be answering or not. After a few seconds, the blond man slowly backed away, believing that it was better to leave Bucky's privacy alone...

  
Not knowing that when you didn't answer, the phone directly went to voicemail:

  
_"Yeah, Bucky? It's Bruce. I'm afraid I've got some bad news. I just finished analyzing your latest test and it's...it's pretty bad. I think you were right when you said that maybe it was time to accept the inevitable. If you could call me back, so we could discuss when we can set everything up to make your transition, that would be great. Thanks, bye!"_

  
Steve stood there as the message ended, his heart picking up speed and beads of stress suddenly appearing on his forehead.

 

_Inevitable?_

 

_Make your transition?_

 

What was going on?

   
Was...was Bucky sick?

  
Or...even worse than that...

  
Was...was Bucky _dying_?

  
Steve turned his head toward his post-it and looked at his final reason as to why he and the former Winter Soldier could never be...

  
**6) You're measuring only one of his 70 inches, for god's sake!**

  
But then again, even this fact seemed superfluous now with what he'd just learned.

  
He found himself slumping on the kitchen counter, completely lost.

 

Because...

 

_Because._

 

A brand new reason as to why and Bucky could never be together seemingly writing itself, one that he had never seen coming:

 

**7) You can't give your heart to someone when they don't have a lot of time left.**

 

  
What...what the hell was he going to do _now_?


	5. The appetizer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Bucky gets his surprise ready, Steve plans to spend his birthday alone, like he does every year.
> 
> But will he?

Bucky was sitting on the wooden floor of his living-room, his head resting against one the walls of his living quarters and meticulously tying a knot inside a thread of fishing line when a knock indicated that someone wanted to pay him him a visit.  
He smiled when Dr. Banner, his most helpful new friend over the past couple of months, waved at him when he entered and gave out a wolf-whistle as he took a look at what was laying on the ground right beside the former Winter Soldier.

  
"Well, Bucky, I have to say that you've really surpassed yourself here. And here I thought what you did in that U.N prison was impressive, this right here is quite something."

  
The man in question's grin grew wider as he put his last piece of work back where it belonged. "Thanks, but the most important question is: do you think Steve's going to like it?" he asked with hope in his voice.

  
Bruce bent over and gave the other man an encouraging pat on the shoulder. "Getting all of this for his birthday, when all that he's had in his size ever since coming here has been a couple of items of clothes and that damn shoe-box that he like to call his home? Trust me, when he's seen what you've cooked up for him, he's going to go completely gaga."

  
Bucky's face, despite the doctor's enthusiasm, darkened a bit as he looked downward and frowned a bit.

  
He didn't know what had happened over the last three weeks. Ever since he'd gone back to the communal kitchen to get his cellphone back after lending it to Steve, things had become... different between the two of them. The blond had become distant, even almost...cold toward the other man. And his aloof attitude hurt Bucky even more than when the other man had displayed it back when they'd first met, because back then they were literately strangers, but now they'd grown accustomed to one another and for one Bucky thought Steve had come to like him, like he'd come to like the other man.

  
Even if it would never be nothing more than as a friend and as a teammate.

  
So then, what the hell had happened that day to make Steve act so non-nonchalantly with him, always leaving the room whenever the long-haired man came by, with only a hurried _"Hello"_ or _"Bye"_ whenever their paths ended up crossing, never looking at him in the eye and always retreating as far away as he could whenever the two of them had to be in the same quarters together?

  
Had Bucky done or said something wrong?

  
Had he offended Steve in some way?

  
Had he read all the signals he'd thought the blond man had given him wrong and this was why he had grown so detached all of a sudden?

  
Shaking his thoughts away, just like his Wakandan therapist had taught him to do whenever his bad memories made themselves known, Bucky's lifted his head once more as he asked: "So then, what did you come here for, exactly?"

  
"I came here because I finally got it." Bruce replied, his smile making the spark return inside Bucky's eyes.

  
Standing up, he looked at the small device that Dr. Banner was brandishing inside his hand with excitement. "That's really going to do the trick?" he asked.

  
Bruce nodded and replied: "Yep and all this bad boy needs is for you to turn it on. Now, the question is: are _you_ yourself ready for what's about to come?"

  
And Bucky, with a bit of a bittersweet look upon his face, took a look around the space that had been his temporary living-room for the past couple of months and then at what he'd been working hard on for the past couple of weeks.

  
Nodding and smiling one more time when the device arrived inside his own hand, he answered with a soft: "Yeah, I just hope Steve likes his surprise and doesn't become even more upset with me than he already is."

  
***********

  
**The next evening...**

 

  
"Oh see, now that is so _not_ fair!" came a heaving call behind him, making Steve laugh and turn around.

  
Sam dragged his tired foot body to where the blond was now standing, right in front of the Tower's large door, squinting his eyes at the one-inch man cackling at him. "I don't get it. You're the size of my goddamn thumb and you always beat me whenever we go for a run., even when it gets dark. I ask you, how? **HOW**?"

  
That made Steve cackle even more and crossing his arms, he simply replied: "I don't know man, I mean, here I thought the older you got, the worse your cardio went. But, looking between you and me right now, maybe the truth is actually the other way around."

  
Still squinting and shaking his head now, Sam changed the subject by asking: "Hey listen, I know you never do anything special for your birthday..."

  
That Steve quickly interrupted by raising a finger and responding: "And I intend to repeat the feat once again this year."

  
Sam frowned and said in an imploring tone: "But who the hell wants to spend his birthday alone and on July the fourth no less?! I mean, we could have some BBQ, watch some fireworks, all of us could hang out, come on!"

  
But Steve's resolve never wavered. "And I'm telling you I don't wanna do this stuff. Do you really wanna see me even near a BBQ? I'll combust in flames right there and then. And fireworks? Same deal if one on them somehow goes astray. And all of us hanging out?" he answered with a shake of the head.

  
His thoughts went back to Bucky, as they'd always seemed to do so despite his numerous attempts to get the other man out of his head. Hanging out and getting closer than ever to Bucky would have been quite the dream a few weeks ago, but now...now with what he'd accidentally come to know...

  
No, better to stay as far away to the other man as he could, so that his heart wouldn't right out bleed out when Bucky ended up...

  
Ended _up_...

  
"Steve? 'You okay?" Sam asked, looking concerned for his friend.

  
Sighing and keeping his sudden attack of grief under control... _again_ ,

  
Steve nodded and with a wave of the hand, simply replied: "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that for my birthday, all I want to do is take a bath, get in my lazy clothes and get some sleep. Alone, like I'm always going to be."

  
With that, he easily slipped right under the crack of the main doors of the Tower, leaving a disappointed Sam behind.

***********

  
But unfortunately (or maybe... fortunately?) for him, that's not quite what happened.

  
Sure, he did in fact get the bath part of his evening right, enjoying quite the good, warm soak inside the large coffee cup that he'd filled in the communal kitchen and that was now standing on the same kitchen counter where he'd heard...

  
_**Goddamnit!**_ Why did everything reminded him of Bucky, no matter how far they were related to the other man and how far he himself had tried to get away from him?! Why? _Why?_ **_WHY?!_**

  
He was about to beat his head against the porcelain edge of the cup for a fourth time when a dual beeping sound interrupted his current frustration.

  
Somehow DUM-E and DUM-U, Tony's robotic helpers and Steve's sometimes means of transportation when it came to long distances, had made their way onto the kitchen counter and were both looking at him with curious eyes at the moment, if they'd a face instead of fingers as a main body, of course...

  
Speaking of fingers...

  
Why was there a garment bag hanging onto one of DUM-E's?

  
And why was DUM-U slowly approaching him, opening and closing his own like that?

  
What was going-

  
**Hey!**

  
***********

  
_"Let me go!"_ cried Steve for the thirtieth-time in the same amount of minutes.

  
Somehow, someway, at a speed the blond man had never known the two helpers to possess, DUM-E and DUM-U had grabbed the poor naked man, had dried him with the help of a fluffy towel, to then force him inside a brand new set of underwear, pants, shirt, socks, jacket and shoes.

  
And, after refusing to budge even a millimeters before knowing what was going on, here Steve stood, or should we say, here Steve hung, right by the seat of his expensive-looking pants, held tightly by DUM-U as the unlikely trio made their way down the large hallway, neither robots stopping even as Steve pleaded and tried to wiggle himself free.

  
And, as DUM-E knocked on a door that Steve just _knew_ he'd seen somewhere before...

  
And, as an equally nervous and excited sounding _"Just a second!"_ came through the other side and the door somehow opened itself without any assistance, except maybe for that long fishing line that Steve just _knew_ he'd never seen before...

And, as the robotic duo rolled in, with the blond man within one of their grasp...

  
Steve didn't realize what was going on.

  
Not until DUM-U _finally_ put him down on a unfamiliar wooden floor, leaving him alone as the robot and his companion rolled right back out...

  
Not until he found himself standing face-to-face with...

  
A hand-made Coney Island.

  
But that wasn't what made Steve gasp,

  
That wasn't made Steve's jaw drop pretty much right on the unfamiliar floor.

  
No, what did the trick was...

  
Was...

  
Bucky.

  
Bucky standing there,

  
In a gorgeous suit of his own...

 

Whispering a soft _"Happy Birthday."_ , with a small smile upon his face.

  
All the while...

  
Looking _up_ at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ETA: I changed one little detail into this chapter to give the ending a little bit more oomph. Hope you like it. :)


	6. The hors-d'oeuvres

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A date is had and a truth is finally revealed.

***Poot* *Poot* *Poot* *Ding!* *Ding!***

  
Steve had his face against the plexiglass window, taking everything he was seeing:

  
The small tiles and the wooden fences that made up a boardwalk, but without the Atlantic Ocean,

  
The different kiosks where games could be played anytime you liked, from the crane machines to the small ski-ball displays,

  
The food, oh _god_ the food, that looked absolutely mouth-watering, from the multi-colored cotton candy to the small bits of toffee-apple,

  
And was that...an actual _working_ Ferris Wheel?!

  
How in the _hell_ did Buck-?

  
"So, I take it from your silence and everything, that you actually like my birthday present?" came an hesitant voice beside him, making the blond man turn around.

  
Bucky was sitting there, slightly blushing, scratching the back of his neck.

  
"Wow." was all Steve could respond, shaking his head in disbelief.

  
That made Bucky slightly smile in hope. "Really?"

  
"No, I mean it, wow." Steve repeated, opening his arms to indicate everything around him. "How the hell did you-?"

  
Just like that time a few months earlier, Bucky once again pointed at his metal arm as he explained: "You wouldn't believe how precise limbs could be, even mechanical ones."

  
Steve once again shook his head and pointing now towards the other man himself, he asked: "And how the hell did you do that to yourself?"

  
And Bucky, with an even bigger smile, opened his formerly closed fleshy hand, revealing a device Steve recognized almost immediately. "That's Hank Pym's..." he started.

  
"One of his shrinking devices, yes. I used it just before you arrived and let me tell you, the look on your face when you saw me was worth the writhing bones and muscles pain price alone. And since a _lot_ of little birdies told me that you usually spent your birthday all alone, I wanted to give you a piece of your past, just like it was a piece of mine. And in the proper size too." Bucky finished for him. Suddenly checking out something out of the window of the small tramway train that had been taken them on a grand tour of the whole thing (Steve would have to ask just how Bucky did one too), the long-haired man's face broke into a slight grin as he added: "And would you look at that? 'Looks like we reached out stop."

  
With that, he stood up and indicated for the other man to follow him outside of the train...

And into the most romantic-looking place Steve had ever seen.

  
***********

  
The blond man reared against the back of his chair, looking up at the ceiling. "I don't know about you, but I for one cannot eat another crumb."

  
Bucky smiled as he put his fork back onto the table that separated the two of them. "Yeah, I'm pretty full too." he remarked, also leaning back and sighing.

  
Candles lit the entire room, giving it an old-timey feel.

  
At the center of it had stood a small wooden table, adorned with two small chairs so that the two suited men could sit by and enjoy their dinner.

  
And what a dinner it was: all cocktail-sized canapes of different kinds, but somehow all of Steve's favorite foods. Bucky had done his research, that was for certain here.

  
And speaking of [favorites](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fY2EOIjeBE)...

  
_"How much do I love you?_

  
_I tell you no lie."_

 

Bucky looked at Steve, once again nervousness written all over his face.

  
Standing up and coming over to his side of the table, the long-haired man extended his fleshy hand and asked in a trembling voice: "I know you and I are not the greatest fast-dancers there is, but do you think you can try dancing something slow with me?"

  
Staring at the way the flames seemed to shiver inside Bucky's deep grey eyes, Steve smiled tenderly as he took the other man's limb inside his own. "I think we can indeed try."

  
_"And if I ever lost you._

  
_How much would I cry?_

  
_How deep is the ocean?_

  
_How high is the sky?"_

  
There they both were, lost inside their own little world. Closer than they'd ever been inside each other's arms, feet slowly swaying to the romantic music.

  
Steve couldn't stop staring at the man whose fingers were interlocked with his own. This man, this amazing man who'd done so much for him, who was everything he'd ever wanted in a friend, in a companion, in a...

  
This amazing man, who had now his eyes closed and was slowly leaning in...

  
This amazing man...who didn't have a lot of time left.

  
Oh.

  
Oh _god_.

  
He couldn't do this.

  
In a flurry of movements, Steve quickly scrambled away from the other man's embrace.

  
"I'm sorry, Buck. I can't. I swear I want to, but I can't." he tried to explain.

  
And Bucky was standing there, his arms now to his sides, looking bewildered and a little sad. "I-I don't understand. What's going on?" he stammered out.

  
Something broke inside Steve at that precise moment and the wall that he'd built inside himself so that the storm surging from Bucky's untimely death would cause no ill effect on his heart suddenly crumbled, feeling the wound the phone call he'd heard all those weeks ago opening itself right back up.

  
"I...I know the past couple of weeks I've been acting a bit weird and distant." he began.

  
"Yeah, I was about to ask you about that and I'm actually relieved that it wasn't just my imagination playing tricks on me here." Bucky responded. He tried to take a step closer to the other man, but Steve held up a hand to keep him at bay.

"Well, there's been a reason for that." Looking at Bucky in the eye, Steve's lips started to wobble a bit as he finally confessed: "I heard Bruce's voicemail, Buck."

  
Now the other man was looking at him with pure confusion: "Bruce's voicemail? What Bruce's voicemail?"

  
Sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration, Steve's eyes were getting watery now. "The voicemail that came from that thing over there!" he exclaimed, pointing to Bucky's cellphone, the same phone that the moody music had come from all throughout the night.

  
"The day you lend it to me, it rang while I was doing other stuff on it. I didn't want to break your privacy, so I let it go to the voicemail and I...I heard everything Bucky. About the test...about the results...about the...inevitable."

  
Tears began to slowly roll down his cheeks as he gestured between the two of them.

  
"At first I thought we could never be together because we were too different, then because of our size problem, but then...then there this huge sword that's about to fall on top of both of our heads."

  
He then grabbed the long-haired man by the arms as he sniffled and added in a pained voice: "I can't do this because soon you're going to be gone, Bucky! You're going to die in a matter of days, weeks, maybe even months if we consider ourselves lucky and I'm going to stay here, all alone! And this is why I have trouble letting people in, because every time I come to love someone, they leave or even worse...they end up dying."

  
A light seemed to click inside Bucky's mind at that particular moment and instead of crying or at least, being in distress like Steve was right now...

  
Bucky began laughing.

  
He stood there, holding his stomach together with both of his hands, bent in half and cackling out loud, much to Steve's dismay.

  
"Wh-what's so goddamn funny? You're freakin' _dying_ Bucky, that's not _funny_!" the blond man wailed out.

  
Drying the tears that had begun to roll down his own face, but in mirth this time around. Bucky's face rested into a small smile as he shook his head and replied: "I think you've got everything wrong here, pal. Come on now, I believe we have to take one more stop on the tour."

  
"To where?"

  
"My own living quarters."


	7. The main course

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A second truth is revealed...

If Steve thought Bucky's version of Coney Island had been quite _something_ , what he saw when the small car turned the corner was literally **_everything_**.

  
It was like a mini-person's heaven.

  
As he stepped out of the tramway car, Bucky following closely behind, he couldn't help but gawk at everything that he laid his eyes upon...

A funicular that was hanging near the ceiling, with a zip-line that seemed to go outside of Bucky's living-quarters, 

  
The living-room that had a another cellphone that worked as a television, along with a stuffed handmade leather couch,

  
The bathroom that had a toilet just like his own residing at the communal rest area, along with a small spray of water that seemed to work like a shower,

  
A kitchen that had a Easy bake oven and a mini-fridge, along with a similar-looking table and wooden chairs than the ones he and Bucky had sat onto only moments earlier,

And a bedroom that was _so_ much more than a mere shoe-box and a simple piece of wadding.

  
The small device that Bucky had used on himself to shrink to his present size was brandished in front of Steve's eyes.

  
"I've already told you that they'd made alterations after they saw what happened to you when they'd injected you with your serum and before they injected it inside of me. But what I didn't tell you is that whatever modifications they did, it didn't stick, they only began to stick inside whatever was injected in Natasha's veins during her Red Room ordeal. Those damn Pym particles that attacked your system and made you this size? It's been attacking mine but on the slower side of things.  That's why they kept me frozen while I was in Hydra, on top of keeping me under their control, it was so that I didn't began to get smaller and smaller, just like I've been ever since I got out. I wasn't measuring 70 inches originally, Steve, I was measuring 72. It began quite slowly, but it just went on faster and faster and everything became more painful and painful as time went by." he began to explain. "Ever since we got here, have you even seen one single piece of furniture at my original size, or one single piece of appliances?" he asked the other man.

  
Shaking his head, Steve shrugged his shoulders as he said: "No, but I didn't think that it meant anything..."

  
That made Bucky smile sadly at the other man. "That's because I've always knew I never needed it. I spent the two years inside my UN prison making all of these. Coney Island might have been for you Steve, but all of this...that's for me." he gestured around the room. And pointing at the device inside his hand, the long-haired man added: "And the inevitable Bruce was talking about? Was this thing right here. The inevitable was me getting to this size, so that I wouldn't hurt anymore, so that I would be where I've always meant to be ever since Azzano got to me..."

  
Taking slow steps towards Steve, he said in a tender voice: "So that I could follow what my heart was telling me for all of these years, ever since before I even rolled inside that stupid war. So that I could find a way to be with the man I've always idolized, always admired, always liked and now...

  
Looking straight into the other man's blue eyes, he gently whispered: "Love."

  
And Steve, now his eyes brimming with happy tears, reached out and tenderly caressed Bucky's stubbly cheek. "I love you too, Buck. **God** , if you only _knew_..."

  
Grinning slightly, Bucky couldn't help but whisper once more before leaning in: "I think I got a bit of an idea."

  
And the other man smiled as their lips met for the very first time, finally happy, finally not alone. 


	8. The dessert

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A sweet one on top of that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter! Thanks to anyone who read this story, it really meant the world to me. :)

**One week later...**

  
" _Ahh_ , this is the life." sighed Steve as he let himself go on the surface of the water.

  
Bucky grinned at him from over the edge. "Yeah. 'Can't believe we're finally able to take a soak into the Atlantic."

  
Steve turned his head to look at his boyfriend. "Well I *did* tell you that your Coney Island was in fact missing something here."

  
"Did you tell me that before or after we made out on the Ferris wheel?" asked Bucky with raised eyebrows.

  
In mock-thinking, Steve scrunched his face and tapped his chin with his finger as he responded: "Well, if my memory is correct here, it was _before_ the toffee, between the crane games, but *after* I almost threw up inside your hand-made Cyclone ride, _again_."

  
That made Bucky chuckle and he splashed the other man as he answered: "Yeah, well excuse me for not thinking about using a glass salad bowl as an ocean simulator, alright? I'm used to gluing and screwing things together, not using whole household products in inventive ways. Which by the way, who does this bad boy belong to?"

  
Steve only waved a hand at that. "That's a small detail in a whole bigger picture." he said as he set himself back up and swam over to his love.

  
"Oh really? And what "bigger picture" we're talking about here?" dared to ask Bucky, leaning into the other man's reaching hand.

  
"Well, you _were_ talking about things screwing just a second, am I wrong on that?"

  
"I said screwing things, not things screwing. There's a difference there, pal."

  
And once again Steve waved his other hand, and leaning in, he whispered hotly. "To **ma** toes, tom _ma_ toes. Because between you and me, you know what I've dreamed even more than bathing in the Atlantic ocean by the moonlight?"

  
Bucky smiled gently as their foreheads tenderly touched. "No, what?" he whispered back.

  
"Making love in the Atlantic by the moonlight." was all Steve answered, finally capturing the other man's lips in a searing kiss, which lead to...

  
_"Guys, why the hell was my salad bowl out on the patio last night?" asked Tony the next day._


End file.
